Let's assume for a moment that the invalid votes did put him over the top. Then what? Even if it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they were cast for him...then what? WTF do you think this DoJ is going to do about it?

The one silver lining here is that, should the above be the case, those in favor of minimizing voter fraud regardless of who it benefits can use this as a battle standard going into the mid-terms.

I recall being ridiculed by fls, HDHouse, and others for stating that Franken won by fraud at the time of the election.

My wife was an election judge who saw and reported some of the shenanigans; nothing came of it. I myself saw one man vouch for a busload of Muslim women in veils or full niqab, then proceed to "help" them vote.

"We aren't trying to change the result of the last election. That legally can't be done," said Dan McGrath, Minnesota Majority's executive director. "We are just trying to make sure the integrity of the next election isn't compromised."

7. Mark Begich (narrowly beat Ted Stevens after Stevens was convicted of fraud, a conviction that was later overturned on the grounds of prosecutoral misconduct)

Maria Cantwell and Mary Landrieu have also won elections thanks to "midnight returns from Precinct 13" style maneuvers.

And don't forget Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy who each died in office after lingering for a couple years.

There's also Tim Johnson, who was incapacitated by a stroke, and has still not yet fully recovered...but won re-election in 2008 anyway.

Oh. I almost forgot Frank Lautenberg who managed to get on the ballot in NJ despite missing the deadline to get his name on the ballot. (The scandal plagued Bob Torricelli should properly have been on the ballot).

That's the Democrats' Senate majority right there. Are Republicans even trying?!

From an historical perspective, Franken's win gave the Dems a bullet proof Senate majority and that allowed Pres Obama to veer far left and enact Obamacare, the Spendulus, etc. His tack to the far left has effectively ruined his presidency [so far].

Ironic, sin't it, that an election stolen by Dems may have destroyed a Dem president's term.

Quite honestly the results are from a conservative think tank, an organization that would rather have the grim sleeper serial killer in office than a "liberal" like Franken.And reported to the public on Fox, the least fair and balanced network in existence. Grain of salt, baby, grain of salt.

I'm assuming (I think I'm right) that these were not incarcerated felons, but people who had served their time and were released. It's never been clear to me why the right to vote is taken away. I should read about the history of this restriction, I guess. My broad guess is that all felonies in the past were way more serious than some felonies now. Sort of reverse grade inflation.

I live in PA, been in the same home for four years and yet the county / township mails voter info to my house addressed to 6-7 former residents. One day I am going to ask to look at the voting rolls to see how many people are registered to vote from my address.

[I seem to recall, after the 2000 Florida debacle, the pols promised to fix all these problems]

My guess is that there is a fair amount of bipartisan voter fraud and human error in every election. SWAG--way less than .5%. Sometimes it makes a difference--pretty rarely, though. If the procedures can reasonably be tightened up, they should be. Bottom line--work your tail off for yur candidate so that the other guy can't steal the election.

The voters may or may not have been convicted felons. Reading further in the article we learn that all that the "Minnesota Majority" can say was that they found people with the same names and birth years, living in the same communities as the convicted felons. Even so, the convicts may have been sentenced to probation, which upon successful completion would not have taken their civil rights away.

Considering the demographics of MN, I wouldn't be surprised if several Ole Olsons or Yon Yonsons were running around, in and out of jail.

But I agree that matching felons and voters is worth looking into, even if the number melts away.

Originally felons were executed, which would have prevented this problem. But our namby-pamby PC politocracy backed away from that years ago.

I doubt the result would have been reversed if those votes were tossed, but even it was, we got Franken but you got Bush. It's like a rook for a king. I'd suggest we still deserve a 2 knights a rook and three pawns.

They just don't give a shit if elections are fraudulent, just so long as their fraud is the one elected.

First of all we don't even know how the suspected felons voted. That would seem to matter if you are claiming Franken won because 314 suspected felons voted for him, and none voted for Coleman. And if I were a felon, I would seriously consider the Coleman ticket. Second, we don't know if the people on the public records list match up internally with the county, as the link states. Only 3 people have been charged so far with voter fraud in Hennepin? This is your case?

Psota wrote: "And don't forget Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy who each died in office after lingering for a couple years."

A couple of years? That's being generous, I suppose. Teddy "Stunt Driver" Kennedy and Exalted Cyclops Byrd were morally and intellectually moribund decades before they assumed room temperature. They owed their long careers to lazy and servile voters in MA and WV. The sad thing about democracy is that free people can vote themselves into servitude.

Since felons and Democratic politicians both do the same thing for their living... that is separating people from their money by force or fraud... I would say that nearly 100% of the felons would vote for the Dems... minus the amount that would be confused by the advanced technology that is a lever.

About the only difference I see in the two groups is that one uses their ill-gotten gains to by crack, the other buys votes. I find the former to be much less destructive to society.

BTW, these guys don't even bother to hide their intentions. Holder will not even make localities clean their voter lists of dead people and felons. There is only one rational reason why he would do such a thing... and we saw the result of it in MN.

‘We're not interested in those kind of cases. What do they have to do with helping increase minority access and turnout? We want to increase access to the ballot, not limit it’

(Regarding purging the voter rolls of dead people, felons, illegal voters and those who have moved out of state, according to J. Christian Adams, a former career Justice Department lawyer who resigned recently to protest political interference in cases he worked on.)

btw, here's how you figure out how felons vote. ask a simple question. which part is more in favor of letting felons vote? there's your answer. the dems wouldn't be so hot to get felons to vote, if they didn't think that would be their vote. its all part of a strategy. bring in illegal aliens to vote, let the felons and the deceased vote, let acorn defraud their way into the rest... and bam maybe you have less of an electorial disaster in november.

I'm having a hard time finding where the number 341 comes from in that article.

There are 52 conclusive matches in Ramsay Co, as explained by someone in the DA's office (Carruthers). The initial list of 460 names was dropped to 52. In contrast, the results from Hennepin Co -- 899 down to 289 -- no comment in the article on why the number dropped -- but 289+52 does equal 341. I'd like to see how the 899 dropped to 289; the percentage differences between initial and final are quite different between the two counties (~12% vs ~30%). And what would figures look like state-wide?

Madman: The first attempt that was "just plain wrong and full of errors" had 899 names. Matching names, birth years, and communities knocked it down to 289 possibles in Hennepin County. God knows what they did in the first place to get 899 names. So the real true number of felon voters in Hennepin county is somewhere between 3 and 289.

Bagoh, I am proud to be a Democrat, and a liberal. I am not a commie, socialist, a thief or any pejorative name you all want to call me. Losers are just trying to justify their position and their "outrage" at the way things are. Too bad.

Maybe we need to be a little more careful about who we let vote. To contrast, I'm required to pass a background check to make sure I'm not a felon to exercise a fundamental individual right that's enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Lots of folks argue that it doesn't infringe on my right at all, so how could they complain about checking a voter for eligibility?

"Bagoh, I am proud to be a Democrat, and a liberal. I am not a commie, socialist, a thief or any pejorative name you all want to call me. Losers are just trying to justify their position and their "outrage" at the way things are. Too bad."

What about the rule of law? Does that mean anything to you?

Or are you so enamored with your liberality that you don't have time to bother with law?

"Totally, Mike.If that's what it takes to silence the nay sayers. Investigate away. You righties won't like what the investigation has to say."

What I would hope the investigation finds is that the law was followed. What I would hope the investigation finds is that we do not have someone sitting in the Senate who does not have a right to be there.

What I have no hope of, however, is that the responsible officials will even look, for fear of what they might find.

former law student wrote: "Consider that most felons are self-employed entrepreneurs. As such, their natural home is in the GOP."

As self-employed entrepreneurs they may have a philosophical confluence with the Republicans, but the Democrats usually provide a friendlier business environment for their kind of enterprise, thus following the guidance of the unseen hand they vote for the donkey rather than the pachyderm.

"Alex said... Even if the felon vote put Franken over the top, it still points to the Minnesota electorate being very divided 50/50. That's the larger story."

================No, at the time the story was who the voters would pick - a clown like Franken or the guy with all the photos hugging Bush and the old fart who was running with the bimbo.

Obama won Minnesota by 54.2% to 44% for McCain. For some reason, idependent voters in Tristate were also unusually repelled by Palin. The whole Republican brand was fouled up - Bush bungled his wars and was oblivious to his "Doer Folk" on Wall Street setting up a global economic and financial meltdown - but the basic message of Republicans that they wanted more wars and less taxes on Wall Street sorts and would be more honest in the future didn't sell against "hopey changey".

That opened the way for the clown to get in the Senate.Coleman, unfortunately - didn't distance himself enough from Bush or McCain.

Listen, quaestor, plenty of pejoratives have been thrown around in this post.

I am interested in the truth, no matter what it is. I just want to see that an unbiased group is actually doing the investigation. Not some right wing, conservative group. They and the super left wing groups are no more interested in the truth than Mel Gibson is in being sober.

The ACORN-SEIU-Govt payroll-Teachers union Democrats have been pushing amnesty and motor voter and no ID voting for years because they want fraud to be easy.

You don't give a shit who did the study. You ignored this satement anyway:'But the report got a far different review in Ramsey County, which contains St. Paul. Phil Carruthers of the Ramsey County attorney's office said his agency had taken the charges "very seriously" and found that the Minnesota Majority "had done a good job in their review."

Although the wording is a bit ambiguous, as I read it, of the names that Minnesota Majority matched between the felon and voter list, Ramsey County was able to verify one in five so far, indicating a lot of false hits, even after MM reviewed their lists carefully.

If I lived in one of the 50 states I probably would not even register. Voting is a joke in most places. Worse, most people seem to accept the corruption and laugh and make jokes about it.

There seems to be little or no control over who can register and even less over who can vote.

Come to Puerto Rico and we will show you how to run an honest election.

1) Paper ballots marked by the voter with a pencil

2) Secure voter ID card. No card, no vote. Well, no card, you do get to vote if your name is on the registry list but it is counted separately after your right to vote has been adjudicated.

3) Finger dipped in UV ink to prevent double voting.

4) To get a voter ID card must present proof of residency and US citizenship.

I've been voting in PR since the 1976 elections and can tell you that we have pretty close to zero allegations of voting fraud. Even fewer of them are proven.

We still get some of the crappiest politicians in the US but at least we get them honestly.

For those who think paper ballots take too long to count? We have preliminary totals 4-5 hours after the polls close. Except in the occasional tight race, these are almost always the same winners as are finally certified.

We typically have 70-80% turnout and 80-90% registration.

Many of the elections in the upper 50 are a joke and I would not waste my time in them.

Are you still missing your dentures and confusing Preperation H for toothpaste, or is the brain plaque finally taking a firmer hold across your twisted convolutions, you doddering colostomy bag? Bush won by 537 votes using manbearpoodlepigs own chad/recount criteria. Let it die, fossil. Just like you should be doing right about now.

Don't worry, all you Socialist trolls out there, the NBP will take over poll watching everywhere except Nome, AK, and it won't be granted ballots. Voting will be properly secured now with thumb prints in place of signatures on all pre-printed paper ballots.

Oh you boys are touchy touchy about florida...and why we ask? because the nytimes recount was only a partial recount as court ordered and not the whole state. there was enough junk in florida to make your little heads explode so don't lay that "he won get over it" crap on anyone. that dog don't hunt.

it was a mess and you know it was so stop with the hurt feeling posturing. you sound like little kids.

as to Franken,you jerks deprived Minnesota of a senator for a year while your boy there played the typical victim..always the hurt victim you gop-er's...poor little babies. you lost get over it...

Even if the felon vote put Franken over the top, it still points to the Minnesota electorate being very divided 50/50. That's the larger story.

The problem our system of voting is that it treats the final vote total like it was perfectly accurate. It never is. There is a margin of error created by human error, fraud, and happenstance. The problem is, we have no good way of knowing how large that margin is.

Realistically, the Bush/Gore Florida vote was a statistical tie. So was the Minnesota vote and a host of others before it.

Vicki: I am proud to be a Democrat, and a liberal. I am not a commie, socialist, a thief or any pejorative name you all want to call me.... I was raised with Republicans and live among them like Diane Fossey lived with the apes. Interesting but backward, those Republicans.

The only reason Vivki is a Democrat is because the branding helps her compensate for her own defects of character.

WTF? FOX? Seriously? Why not cite pravda.ru while you're at it? Oh, wait, most conservatives now see nothing wrong with going to Russia's version of the Weekly World News, especially on issues like AGW or the global economy - given that actual facts still have that nasty liberal bias.

FOX has zero credibility. If they say the sky is blue, look up. Merely taking anything they have to say seriously kills your own credibility; academia avoids them like the plague for one simple reason: their track-record is a sick joke.

Citing FOX as a primary source for any political story is like citing SGT. ROCK comics for military history.

The presumption by commenters that felons are all pro-Democrat is the comic relief for a sad post - because goodness knows, Birchers & rednecks NEVER wind up becoming felons. Straight from the "minds" of FreeRepublic to your keyboards - thanks, guys!

Or the New York Times or the Washington Post. At least FOX makes no pretense that it leans right.

Oh, wait, most conservatives now see nothing wrong with going to Russia's version of the Weekly World News, especially on issues like AGW or the global economy - given that actual facts still have that nasty liberal bias.

Thats so cute, considering Lefty Rags like the NYTs and Wapo have distorted and lied about so many AGW "facts". Bets that you swallowed the "nothing to see here" swill about CRU?

academia avoids them like the plague

Academia does not avoid them like the plague. Academia avoids all opposing pov's that dont dovetail with their biased narrative.

Citing FOX as a primary source for any political story is like citing SGT. ROCK comics for military history.

Could your ignorance be any more ironic?

The presumption by commenters that felons are all pro-Democrat is the comic relief

Strawman. Of course, Libtards like yourself cant reason, so you must resort to fallacy. You're a product of public education, yes?

rednecks NEVER wind up becoming felons.

Sweet. You even managed to slide in a racial slur. How tolerant and enlightened of you, Libtard.

For years I wondered why I got so violently ill whenever I watched CNN, MSNBC and the Network News hour. My doctor diagnosed it as brain cell rot, and put me on a controlled diet of "factual" news. I am happy to say I am resting comfortably; recovering well and showing no signs of recontamination after watching Fox News.

A commenter here, whose name I won't restate to spare him/her great embarrassment, made this ludicrous comment:

"From an historical perspective, Franken's win gave the Dems a bullet proof Senate majority and that allowed Pres Obama to veer far left and enact Obamacare, the Spendulus, etc. His tack to the far left has effectively ruined his presidency [so far]."

Hahahahahaha! It's funny because it's (not) true!

At this late date in Obama's terrible tenure as the proxy head of Bush's third term and caretaker of his policies and legacy, for anyone to assert that Obama is "far left" or "left" or even vaguely progressive or that the "bullet proof" Democratic hegemony in Washington has been bulldozing through its radical agenda to make America a socialist paradise requires that the one making such assertions be completely disconnected from reality.

As for Franken, he's turning out to be, as far as I can see from the vantage point of not being a Minnesota resident, a serious and admirable Senator.

"...are there even any of those people left today? I thought the last remnants of the John Birch society died off about 30-40 years ago."

They disbanded the John Birch Society when all its members became the mainstream of the Republican party and they started filling up Congress. Of course, many of its former members or spirtual heirs spend their free hours commenting on blogs.

No more pointing fingers and blaming BUSH! This is his! He needs to own up to it. He is responsible for EVERYTHING since his inauguration. That is part of the job, if he doesn't like it he can give up the job.

When the NYT and the other major media, almost all of whom favor the Dems, go back over the 2000 election and agree that Bush did win legitimately, then I think Scalia is right. In this case even the municipality involved agrees that the election was invalid for the reasons brought up. Totally different situation.